Down in the Mines
by AlaynaRoo
Summary: The Quarter Quell is over, leaving the people of District 12 in shock. However, Head Peacekeeper Thread makes sure the abrupt ending of the 75th Games doesn't affect the daily routine of his citizens. When everything begins to settle down, Jerome Cartwright and his class journey down into the mines of District 12 for the annual field trip. That's when the first bomb hits.
1. The Fort

_Set in District Twelve, right after the Quarter Quell ended._

Jerome stared in shock, his jaw frozen in place, keeping his mouth wide open. His wide, unblinking eyes fell on the static-filled television, his expression mirroring every other one around the room. Time almost stood still, and no one spoke for several minutes. Inside everyone's head replayed the scene last seen on the screen: Katniss shooting into nothing and blowing up the arena. Hovercrafts coming and plucking the remaining victors that still were breathing. Being abruptly cut off from the action by some unseen Gamemaker. And then nothing.

Jerome spotted his sister's face as pale as a sheet off to the side, clutching the family cat that was meowing helplessly in an attempt to escape her grasp. Next to her were two of the Mellark brothers, both with tears threatening to spill from their eyes. Jerome didn't judge them. After all, it was _their_ brother in the arena. On the other side of the room were the four parents, who all began whispering fiercely at the same time to one another.

"What does this mean?"

"What are we going to do?"

"Are they all victors?"

"Are there any victors?"

No one had any answers.

Suddenly, Jerome's sister shot up out of her seat, allowing the cat to escape from her arms and dash away as fast as he could.

_Murphy is too thin,_ Jerome thought as the blur of mangy fur and ribs disappeared, _Who am I kidding. We are all too thin. Too thin, too poor, too depressed, and we're in the merchant class. I can only guess how bad the people of the Seam have it. _When Jerome took his eyes off the last spot he saw Murphy, he looked up to see a blond ponytail whip out the door. Both Mellark brothers began to get up to follow her, but Jerome put a hand up to stop them. As close as the Mellarks were to the family, only he knew what was wrong with his sister. And only Jerome knew exactly where she would be.

Jerome turned the corner and walked into the Mellark's empty backyard, passing the famous apple tree that was just starting to show small, green apples, not yet ripe. He stopped at a small, poorly-assembled wooden "fort" that Peeta and his sister built, along with Mr. Mellark, when they were kids. Anyone in the yard hardly noticed it, and anyone who didn't like it-_cough, cough_, Mrs. Mellark- could just pretend it didn't exist. The fort was made from the leftover wood used to make a fence for the pigs. Jerome knocked on the makeshift door.

"Dell? I know you're in their Delly." he asked timidly. "It's me, Jerome."

The door, making a splintering crack from its years of rotting, opened. Jerome crouched and wriggled his way in. Across from Jerome, in the shadow-y light of the holes in the ceiling, sat Delly. Her face was red and still damp from tears. Her blond hair was a mess, with bits of the hay that lined the fort floor stuck in it. Jerome shifted uncomfortably in the restricted space, and his knee knocked into hers. Although he was younger by nearly three years, he was almost equal in size to his seventeen-year-old sister.

"How did you and Peeta fit into this thing?"he whined, immediately regretting it. Delly let out another wave of squeaky whimpers.

The Games had affected her; it had seemed, even more than they affected the Mellark brothers. Jerome knew how close she and Peeta were. And although most people assumed they would get married one day, all of that changed when Peeta confessed his love to Katniss Everden last year. Delly reacted extremely after that episode of mandatory Games-watching. She ran off to the fort and refused to let Jerome in. After an hour of coaxing, she finally opened up to him.

_"Peeta is my _best friend._" _she had told him, _"and he _never _told me how he felt about Katniss. Ever. Why not? Did he not trust me enough? Was I not the right person to know? I thought we were closer than that. And I know that as we grew up, Peeta started hanging out with more guys, but I was always the first person he told things to. Why not tell me about Katniss?"_

And then, after about ten minutes of working up enough courage, Jerome asked her, "_Are you in love with Peeta?"_

Delly had then sharply inhaled a breath at his words, and dried her face. She had looked up at Jerome and croaked out, "_I know I love Peeta. I know he will always love me. But, I can honestly say, that I am not in love with Peeta Mellark." A_nd in seeing the perplexed look on Jerome's face, she continued with, _"You know how I used to tell people that Peeta was my brother? That's how I love him. Like a brother. Like how I love you. But nothing more than that."_

The sound of Delly's voice snapped Jerome back to the present. "W-we were kids. Smaller. We made it work."

After pausing for a moment to remember his question and then processing her answer, Jerome said what was on her mind. "He's going to be okay, Dell. They got him out."

"But what are_ they_ going to do with him, Jerome? He and the other victors ruined their Games. You think they're just going to send him home, after everything he did to them?" Her face grew redder with every word, but this time not from crying. She was a ball of white fury. Angry at the Games. Angry at the Gamemakers. Angry at the Capitol.

_Welcome to Panem,_ Jerome thought miserably.

Delly paused for a moment, then continued with a different tone. "We have to do something. To show the Capitol that they can't have him- any of them. That we support the victors' cause and..." She stopped, a thought forming in her head. "And we support the rebellion!"

Jerome was genuinely surprised at her words. What happened to the merry-as-we-go Delly Cartwright he was used to? Before him sat a fiery girl with rebellion blazing in her eyes. Who put these ideas in her head? District Twelve would never rebel; there's too little of us.

Before his lips could form the question, Delly answered it. "Gale-Gale Hawthorne. He was talking to Thom and Thom said to Leevy and Leevy said to me that Gale knew about other Districts rebelling. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11. We could do that! We would show the Capitol that that don't own the victors and they don't own us! Move over, I need to find Gale." Delly started to get up and push Jerome back, out of the fort, but he stayed firm.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Dell," he spoke to her like he spoke to Greasy Sae's granddaughter. "First you need to calm down and think about this. You're really starting to scare me. Rebellion? No way could that be possible. The Capitol wouldn't allow it. And how is Gale Hawthorne going to orchestrate all of this? I know the Games have upset you, why don't we go home and get-"

"No!" Delly screamed, "You don't understand because you never care about Peeta! You hated him! Well, I care, so I'm going to make a stand! He was supposed to die in those Games, Jerome! So just because Katniss Everdeen screwed up their Quarter Quell up doesn't mean that's going to change Peeta's fate! All we need to do is get their attention off Peeta and onto the districts. And if you're not going to help me, then I'll just have to do it myself!" She punched the ceiling of the fort right in the center of it. Despite all of the rotting, Jerome knew that was the worst place to try and break it since the center is its strongest point. Sure enough, Delly's hand came back with some bloody knuckles, but no broken ceiling. Before he could stop her, she tried again in the same futile spot.

Seeing a look of insanity dancing around along with other swirling emotions in Delly's eyes, Jerome gently took his sister's hand in his. "Please stop, Dell," he begged in a voice just below a whisper. Tears were streaming down his cheeks now. "I don't hate Peeta. I'll help him, I'll help you, just please stop." The look of insanity was gone, leaving a sullen hollowness in Delly's eyes. She slowly nodded, and Jerome slowly led her out of the fort like a small child, leading her to the house of the Hawthorne's.


	2. Into the Seam

The two siblings walked along a dirt road, passing more shops as they went. Up ahead was what was nicknamed the Footprint Path, which distinctively revealed the boot prints of the miners going to and from the mines. Jerome glanced down to his left and saw the prints going more jumbled as they faded into a solid black mess where the main entrance to the mine was. Footprint Path was the boundary that distinguished where the merchant class area ended and the Seam began. After being raised in such a clean home with parents that were so by the book, Jerome still couldn't help but feel a little dirtier when they entered the Seam, even when he tried his hardest not to. Everyone was home because of the mandatory Games-watching, and yet Jerome only saw a few people. One gray-bearded man found his gaze and Jerome quickly looked away. In each Seam person he saw only hollowness in their eyes, and it scared him to his bones. He saw hollowness in his family too, and nearly everyone in District 12, but in their eyes it was magnified by ten times.

As they walked along, Jerome found himself glancing into windows to see if the family was home. Most Seam houses had the same design, so he knew he'd be looking into the living room where most families put their television. After the twelfth consecutive empty living room, though, Jerome started to get frustrated. _Where is everybody? _Jerome wondered. Without meaning to, he snorted out of his nose dismissively and picking up his pace.

Delly, the all-knowing sister she was took one look at Jerome and knew exactly what he was thinking. "Jerome, remember, most people in the Seam don't own a television. They watch all mandatory programs in the Square or…." Delly paused, her walking stopping as well. "Or the Hob…" She trailed off, surely her mind wandering back to the day not too long ago when Head Peacekeeper Thread burned down the black market.

In the uncomfortable silence followed, Jerome glanced over at his sister, who had a vacant look in her eyes. Just when he thought she had been calming down, her Adam's apple started bobbing up and down. Jerome knew this as a sign that she was trying not to cry, but he also knew that when this happened, she got so caught up in keeping the tears from falling that she forgot to breathe.

"Dell, _breathe,_" he ordered. The bobbing ceased. But then, before Jerome could let out a sigh of relief, Delly's face began to shake as if she was saying "no" over and over to herself.

She let out a nervous laugh, saying, "I remember when Peeta and I were about eleven w-we dared each other to go into the Hob. He refused, but I-I wanted to show him how tough I was s-so I walked all the way into that creepy warehouse and saw this-this creepy guy just staring at me. And I burst into tears right then and there. I couldn't move from that spot. Finally, Peeta had to run in and drag me out. Never been back ever since." She shuddered.

More silence, this accompanied with the sullen shuffling of feet on dirt and rocks.

"Is this it?" Jerome stopped up ahead at a house looking just as sad-looking as the rest. The only difference was it actually had muffled voices coming from the inside. In the wood siding of the house just left of the door were names carved in by a child's hand, reading, "Gale," "Vick," "Rory," and "Posy." In the same handwriting, but what looked like a more recent carving, were the names "Katniss" and "Prim."

Looking up from the names, Jerome saw a pale-faced Delly lift her arm to knock on the door. He caught her hand before it could make a fist, though, and brought it back down. "Hold on a minute, Dell. I think you need to collect yourself." She nodded, and slowly inhaled, exhaled, inhaled. Timidly, she knocked on the door.

The voices from inside hushed and, after a brief pause, the door opened. Gale Hawthorne stood there, took one look at the pair, and then quickly stepped out on the porch. He shut the door gently, but not before glancing in at the company inside. In the few seconds of exposure, Jerome saw a small crowd sitting on the living room floor: Two women he recognized as Mrs. Hawthorne and Mrs. Everdeen, Katniss' mother. There were also three dark-haired kids he could only assume were Gale's siblings. _Vick, Rory, and Posy,_ Jerome thought absently. Finally, there was a blonde-haired girl who looked just like a younger, brighter version of Mrs. Everdeen. The girl who he saw with Katniss Everdeen at the Mellark Bakery staring at cakes all the time. Jerome shook his head. _No, that was before the Games. The Games changed that. They change everything._ Now the girl was Primrose. The twelve-no-thirteen year-old little sister who Katniss volunteered for. The one who started it all.

"Can I help you?" A gruff voice called. Gale Hawthorne was staring at Jerome, his solid, gray eyes freezing Jerome in place. Suddenly all the blood drained from Jerome's face and he found himself unable to speak.

"Uhh…" Jerome couldn't remember. What were they there for? What could have possible motivated him and Delly to knock on Gale Hawthorne's front door?

"I want to know about the rebellion." Jerome turned to look at the origin of the voice. It was Delly, but it didn't sound like Delly. Her voice was small, as would anyone's be in front of Gale Hawthorne, but it had a different… background to it. What had Peeta once said? The canvas is something just as important as the painting itself. Delly's canvas of sunflowers and happiness has been replaced, unwillingly, with a much darker picture.

Gale's tough-guy face shattered and his skin paled; he seemed genuinely stunned by Delly's comment. "What?" he whispered.

Underneath Delly's eyes there was a raging storm, her canvas shifting with the thunder clouds and darkening into a starless night. "I know you and your buddies are planning a rebellion. I want to know about it."

Gale's mouth slowly opened as if on a rusty hinge. Jerome could see the wheels turning in his head as Gale carefully chose his next words. "…and how might a girl like _you_ help overthrow the Capitol?"

_Oh, he chose his words carefully,_ Jerome thought with steadily growing anger inside. _Carefully and cruelly._ It seemed to Jerome that everyone thought of Delly the same way: as a happy-go-lucky merchant girl with too many smiles for such a horrible society. Delly didn't notice, because Jerome tried his best to avert her attention, but Gale's words cut deep and Jerome could see the affect they had on her sister.

Jerome turned to Delly. "Look, Dell, this obvious this isn't a good time. You can ask him later. Right now why don't we-"

"I have just as good a reason as you do." Delly completely ignored Jerome's comment and tugging of her arm. She kept her eyes locked on Gale, speaking softly. "You're not the only one whose best friend was put into those Games…twice."

Gale's face softened, and just like that, the two were linked by a common tragedy. He no longer looked at Delly like she was a clueless, blissful bimbo. Jerome had always thought of Gale as a piece of ice: hard, cold, and sharp. No time for emotions. But as he looked at the older boy, he saw just another teenage worrying about a loved one. Maybe Gale wasn't a piece of ice after all.

Gale was whispering something to Delly, but only half of Jerome's mind was listening, so he couldn't make out what Gale said. The other half was staring at the window of the Hawthorne house. Inside, with her forehead pressed up against the pane, was the small dark-haired child around the age of five or six who could only be Gale's sister, Posy. Posy noticed Jerome's staring and gave a small wave, her tiny lips forming into a smile. The gray of her eyes instantly lit up, filling Jerome with spreading warmth, and he couldn't help but smile back at the small girl.

"Jerome." Delly's voice snapped Jerome back to the big kids and he saw his sister's eyes. They were so different than Posy's, as they were blue, but Jerome noticed they were also a lot different than the way they looked ten minutes ago. _Brighter,_ he thought. _Bluer. What did Hawthorne say to her?_

"Jerome, it's time to go," Delly continued, "Goodbye, Gale." She said curtly.

0O0O0O0

"What was _that_?" Jerome was standing in between Delly and the front door of their home. The walk back had been silent, Delly looking as if she was in deep thought the entire time. Jerome took that as a hint to leave her alone. However, he knew he would get no other chance to talk to her about her conversation with Gale. After all, there would be no speaking of the trip to the Hawthorne's in front of their parents according to the unspoken agreement between the siblings not to trouble their parents with any… unnecessary information.

Delly sighed, knowing where he was headed, but half-heartedly tried anyway. "What was what?" she asked flatly.

Jerome snorted at her attempt. "Your private conversation with Gale. One minute you two buddies are chatting it up all cozy, then next thing I know you're dismissing him like unwanted stew."

"All he told me was when and where to meet him to talk about… you know."

"That doesn't answer my que-"

"I thought I heard voices out here." Jerome stopped mid-sentence and turned to see his mother standing in the doorway. "Come inside. It's getting dark." Delly smirked at Jerome as she stepped past him and disappeared inside.

"Come on, Jerome. Wash up and settle down." Mrs. Cartwright said, as she did every night.

"G'night, mom," Jerome gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek before hurdling up the stairs to get ready for bed.


	3. Field Trip

_There were fireworks. Fireworks everywhere. After all, there was a lot of celebrating to do. The rebellion succeeded, and the districts rose up against the Capitol, destroying it and its tyranny. Now, all the districts came together in one gala to rejoice in their freedom and union. Since the Capitol no longer stole most of the districts' food, there were plenty of grains from 9, seafood from 4, livestock from 10, and agriculture from 11. But not only did other districts provide food, 5 and 6 worked together to transport everyone who attended to the location of the event. The festival was held on a wide plain that stretched on and on for as long as anyone could see, and the ground was sprinkled with rubble and forgotten brick, but no one seemed to care. Everyone laughed and had a great time, the majority of the guests positioned around a demolished building that looked very official and vaguely familiar. Jerome was there, along with Delly and Peeta, who were hand-in-hand. Also, there were all Jerome's friends from school, and even the Hawthorne's, and Katniss Everdeen. Posy, Gale's little sister, even went up to Jerome and asked him to dance with her, which of course he did. Finally, it was time for the grand finale of fireworks in one magnificent display, created in part by the miners of 12 and the engineers of 3. All eyes looked up in awe as the first rocket shot up, followed by several others. The anticipation of the first bang hung in the air like heavy drapes, but only silence followed. Giggles and laughter from the party quickly turned into screaming when, instead of bursting with colored light like they should, the fireworks fell back down towards the earth. "Oh, god," Jerome heard Gale Hawthorne beside him whisper. "They're bombs."_

Jerome sat up in his bed, breathing heavily from the horrendous nightmare. He wiped his hand across his forehead and when he drew it back, it was drenched in sweat. He lay back down again, hoping to shake off the foreboding images, but when he closed his eyes, all he heard were more blood-curdling shrieks and screams of hopeless people trying to escape the explosions around them.

Finally, when Jerome couldn't take the sounds anymore, he got up. Through the dim, bluish light coming in from the far window, Jerome could just make out outlines of objects in the room. Since he lived in a merchant house, there were two bedrooms instead of one, but he and Delly still had to share. He glanced over at his sleeping sister, who twitched and jerked her limbs every few seconds. _Bad nightmare? _ Jerome thought. _You're not the only one._ He thought about waking her up, but then decided against it. Delly hadn't been sleeping at all in the past few days because of the Games, so he figured a fitful rest was better than no rest at all. Using the blue light as a guide, Jerome made his way across the hall and down the stairs. After settling down in the sitting room with a glass of water, Jerome glanced over at the blank television screen.

_In the chaos, someone was shouting over the painfully loud explosions."…rome! Where are you?! Jerome!" It was Delly. About fifty yards away, but with a panicking throng of citizens in between, were Delly and Gale. _

"_Delly!" Jerome struggled to push through the crowd in their direction. Before he even made it two feet, another wave of bombs hit the ground. Boom! One bomb landed no too far from Jerome, knocking him into the hysterical young woman next to him. An ear-splitting scream rose up from his left, snapping Jerome's head toward the noise. _Don't let it be Dell, _Jerome worried. Instead, he saw a tiny, dark-skinned girl that looked as breakable as a twig, kneeling over her larger, but equally fragile-looking sister. Boom! The larger girl was still, staring into nothing, and Jerome could see why. She had been hit by one of the bombs, which had completely blown off her legs. Although it was obvious the older girl was dead, the little girl, with bloody chunks of flesh on her face, remained there, squealing her. Boom!_

A high-pitched bird call pulled Jerome out of the dream. He hadn't even realized he had dozed off again. As his heart rate settled down to a more normal pace, Jerome looked at the blank television screen again. Not able to take another round of disturbing nightmares, Jerome subconsciously pressed buttons on the remote to distract him. To his surprise, the screen came to life. A middle-aged reporter in a hazmat suit appeared, saying something about the conditions of District 13 being very unstable. The woman, with too much red lipstick and not enough hairline, turned around and gestured at the demolished building gin the background. Jerome couldn't help but sense something familiar about the landscape behind the reporter, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Because of the lack of power in District 12, his family never watched television except for mandatory viewings, so it wasn't like he'd seen a similar report before. He turned up the volume just enough to hear what she was saying.

"As you can see, the radiation from decades ago is still present in the area, with evidence of various toxins in the atmosphere. If you look closely, you will see distinct indications of erosion on District Thirteen's Justice Building. Look at the-"

The woman's report was cut off by the television abruptly shutting off. _The Justice Building,_ Jerome thought, perplexed. _The building from my dream. When have I seen District 13?_

0O0O0O0

"Jerome?" When, he opened his eyes, Jerome saw his mother standing over him. "Why are you on the sofa?"

Jerome stood up and smoothed his wrinkled pajamas. "Oh sorry, I, uh, I couldn't sleep late night."

"Well, get dressed. You have your field trip today, remember?" Jerome let out a long groan. Every year, his class has to go on the same stupid field trip to the same stupid mine where they learn the same stupid facts about the history, procedure, et cetera, et cetera of mining. The only thing the trip managed to do was make Jerome feel guilty about himself. Mining was a pretty perilous profession, and while so many people had to work in those death traps all the time, Jerome had a set future in the shoe shop.

In previous years, every single student from the school went down in the mine on the same day. This was mayor Undersee's idea. Since his daughter Madge hated the trip just as much as every other kid, he decided to get the dreaded day over with as quickly as possible. However, when the Head Peacekeeper Cray was fired, the new Head, Romulus Thread showed up in his place and changed a lot of things in District 12. Thread was really strict on rules, adding lots of "security benefits." He also said that the one-day field trip was a violation of some section something, subsection something something rule. As a result, the field trip to the mines was spread out, one grade going each week. However, when the Games rolled around the trips were suspended. Now, even though it was summer and school was out, the field trips had to resume. Today, it was the fourteen-year-old students' turn, Jerome included.

Jerome silently got dressed, putting on a plain gray shirt and his holey black jeans. His hair was tousled from sleeping on the couch, but that didn't bother him. Looking at the clock, Jerome realized there was little to no time for breakfast. He knew most kids in District 12 skipped because of their lack of food, but his mother yelled at him once for doing that, saying, "There is food in this house and you will not take it for granted." Thus, Jerome sat down at the breakfast table and allowed Delly to give him his some raisin and nut bread from the Mellark's. His mother was in the kitchen up to her elbows in flour. She was attempting to make tarts for Mr. Cartwright's birthday, the ones with the cheese filling he loved, just as she did every year. Delly gave Jerome a knowing look. They both knew their mother's cooking was below average, and they would have to go to the Mellark's to swap for better tarts. Still, as Mrs. Cartwright said, "It's the thought that counts," and that's why she always tried.

Jerome looked over to his father, who sat quietly, fiddling with a piece of leather. Mr. Cartwright had never really been a man of many words, and that was alright with Jerome. His dad was silent yet steady, and he always came through for his children. His and Delly's mother was the more parental one, directing and chiding, while their father taught deeper lessons. How to be thankful for the fat on their bones. How to find goodness in everyone.

Now, don't confuse Mrs. Cartwright with Mrs. Mellark. Jerome's mother was a loving mother with a no-nonsense, can-do attitude, while Peeta's mother just had a short temper at times. Still, the two ladies got along well with one another, leaving their quiet husbands to bond as well.

Jerome's mother glanced at her watch. Antique. Given by her mother, who got it from her mother and so one. _Delly loves that watch,_ Jerome thought absently.

"Jerome, what are you still doing here? You have to go. Now! Your class was supposed to meet up at the mine's main entrance five minutes ago. Go!" His mother shoved the rest of his bread into his bag and shooed him out the back door.

As he shot out the door, Jerome yelled back, "Save some of those tarts for when I get back!"

He hurried through backyards of neighbors, then, after the house that belonged to the potter, he popped out next to the Justice Building. Jerome looked down the road at the Square, seeing rising townspeople pass by. He kept going, turned the corner, and saw a crowd of fourteen-years-olds on Footprint Path. Standing by the entrance was his schoolteacher, Mrs. Rowan, next to a line of armed Peacekeepers. _That's new,_ he thought.

He slipped into the crowd and stood next to his friend Aero. "What's with the suits?" Jerome hissed.

"Thread's decision. To make sure we are all attending." Aero responded with the same disdain as Jerome. Both boys openly loathed the Peacekeepers of District 12, and never understood how some Seam people got along so well with some. _People like Katniss Everdeen_, Jerome thought as his mind wandered.

"Aven Darnell?" Mrs. Rowan's nervous voice carried over a loudspeaker. A girl's slender arm shot up in the air and Mrs. Rowan looked back down at her list. "Sophia Douglass?"

Jerome looked back at Aero. "Did they call me already?" he asked in a low voice.

Aero nodded slowly, responding with, "Yeah. They even sent some Peacekeepers to find you when they didn't see you here." _Uh-oh._

"Bryce Evans?"

Jerome pushed his way forward through the crowd with mutters of _'scuse me_ here and there. He finally reached the front. "Kyra Fairmount?"

Just as she marked down Kyra as present, Jerome tapped her wrist. "Mrs. Rowan, I'm here!" he panted.

Her pale blue eyes looked up from the paper and fell on him. "Oh, Jerome. There you are." She looked over at the Peacekeepers next to her. "We were worried… about you." Her voice was naturally timid, but Jerome could hear another layer of uncomfortableness on top of her mousy personality. She turned to the closest Peacekeeper and Jerome heard undertones passed back and forth, her short, curly black hair bobbing. Finally, the Peacekeeper craned his neck and spoke, with a deep voice, into the radio on his shoulder.

"Yes, Soldiers 243 and 244, this is your squad captain speaking. We have Jerome Cartwright present at the entrance now. You may come back to your original stations. Can I get a reply for comprehension confirmation?" The radio crackled and responded back to the squad captain.

Jerome breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have to be punished. More importantly, his family wouldn't have to be punished. He shuffled back through the crowd to his familiar group of friends along with Aero.

"Alright class, now we are going to split you up alphabetically to go on a tour of our district's mines. The first group is from Accardi to Evans, the second is Fairmount to Kenyon…." Jerome tuned out Mrs. Rowan and turned back to his friend. Aero was another merchant boy, and originally Jerome had thought he was a bit of a jerk. However, Aero's last name being Cardwell put him next to Jerome in nearly every class for nine years, so over the years the two boys became best friends. When he first met him, Aero had something like a force field that shut everyone out, but once Jerome got past that, he met the real Aero, a really nice guy, who he couldn't help but love.

Everyone in the class jumbled around into their assigned groups. Jerome looked around the cluster of students he was put into and saw many familiar faces. He glanced over at the miner who was their guide, an older, gray-haired man with a gaunt face that spoke loud and clear to Jerome. This man was as tortured by having to do this as the students were, and probably was only doing it to get a bit of extra money to feed his starving family. The knot of guilt in Jerome's stomach twisted further at the thought of this man's children. The same sorrowful expression coated their small faces, only to be lit up by one measly loaf of bread bought with the money made today. Jerome then remembered the half-eaten raisin and nut bread in his bag, and the knot twisted even more.

Jerome shook off the thought to listen to Mrs. Rowan again. "…Now remember to always, always stay with your designated miner. They are your one and only guide. Finally, if at any time there is an emergency, follow the marks on the ceiling to find your way to an exit. Stay close, stay safe. Alright, let's go."

And with that, Jerome and his class were going down into the mines.


	4. Tartarus

The iron gate-like door slammed shut and cast an intersecting shadow on the faces of the waiting kids inside. Looking to the wall on the side, Jerome saw two protruding arrows pointing in opposite directions. He In comparison to the elevator that Peeta had told him about, which had had, twelve shiny, round buttons and glided smoothly from floor to floor, this elevator was far inferior. Jerome suddenly felt one hundred times less safe. Before he could panic any further, someone pressed the down arrow and the elevator plummeted, almost to the point of free-fall. Above the racket of the rattling metal from the old iron, Jerome heard several girls scream. Kids scrambled to find something to hold onto, and someone was hyperventilating. Abruptly, the elevator slammed to a stop, but before anyone could move, it lurched to the side. The girl next to Jerome fell into him and the two knocked into the wall, patterned to match the iron door. Helping her up, Jerome saw the girl was Nannerl Allman. "Thanks," she said, breathing heavily. They both stood up and stepped out of the elevator behind the rest of the group. An eerie chill racked Jerome's body and he heard Nan rasp next to him, "Welcome to Tartarus."

0O0O0O0

Delly stood there, arms crossed, foot tapping. She was supposed to have met with Gale Hawthorne fifteen minutes ago. This was where he said to meet her, right? _"Meet me by the slag heap near the east entrance of the mine,"_ he had whispered. She was sure of it. And then on top of that, Gale had winked at her. _Winked._ Who did he think he was? Finnick Odair? And meeting her by the _slag heap._ She knew the rumors surrounding this carefully chosen location. And she certainly knew she was not going to be "one of those girls." Delly's hand went to her pocket, where she felt the bottle of spray that her mother had once given her to protect herself. Her mother had said, "_You can use this to fend off anything you don't want near you. Dogs, rodents, boys. Just don't use it on your brother, please."_

Sighing, Delly sat down at the bottom of the pile of rubble and other mining waste. To occupy herself, she started combing around in the slag heap, finding only rocks and more rocks in the powdery grains of discard. Then, as her fingers upset the dust, her eyes caught a glinting object. Stopping immediately, she picked it up and saw that it was a ring. Engraved in the ring were the initials R.E. _Renee Ebersole,_ Delly thought. That girl was a year ahead of Delly, and for an entire month the year before she had gone on and on about her "date" with Gale. Finally, Renee had stopped squealing about it when she realized there wouldn't second one. Delly felt the bile from her stomach rise up to her throat as she thought of the number of girls would sat where she sat, waiting for the same person she is. Renee was just one of many. But then Delly felt another… more _steamy_ emotion. Was that… jealousy? _No, _Delly told herself. _Never in a millions years will you go down that road. Gale is-_

Right at that moment, someone tapped her on the shoulder. Looking up, she saw it was Gale. Finally. Delly hopped to her feet and turned. She found herself inches from him. Because of the height difference, her eyes fell only up to his chest, and through his fitted white shirt she clearly saw the curve of his pectorals. Exhaling hastily, she stepped back and looked up at Gale's face, who was smiling warmly. "Hey, Blondie. Miss me?" He reached over and tucked a bit of hair behind Delly's ear the way that guy do to girls who they want to be romantically involved in. Then, as he stroked her straw-colored hair, he said gently, "Now I'm no Capitol suit, so I may not have all the details, but from what I-"

"Stop."

Gale's eyebrows furrowed and his hand dropped to his side. "I thought you wanted to know about…" His intense gray eyes dug into her.

Delly averted her gaze. "Let me… let me make one thing clear." She struggled to find the right words. _Was he just stroking my hair? _"Don't think I don't know what you do with other girls here." To prove her point, she held out the ring to Gale. Brows still furrowed, he took it, and the realization slowly smoothed his face into an expression of surprise, then one of… guilt? Gale opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything further, a trio of young girls walked past, whispering fiercely and glancing in their direction. Giggling, they skipped off. Delly continued, "And don't think I don't know that they're assuming you're doing the same with me."

A sigh escaped from Gale's mouth. He looked as though he was about to say something important, but then quickly turned his head again. _Stop looking at things! _Delly wanted to shout. Instead, she followed his gaze to a pair of Peacekeepers with radios buzzing. _"The ninth grade class is in the mine."_ Turning back to Delly, Gale suddenly pulled into a tight hug. She felt the tip of Gale's lips skim her neck, giving her goose bumps down her back and heat in her cheeks. Body tensed, Delly was too startled to even speak. Gale's lips traveled up to the base of her jawline and his breath tickled her ear. Delly gradually relaxed and, unaware of anything that she was doing, wrapped her arms around Gale's neck. Her fingers raked through his soft black hair, then come down to feel his eyes, his cheeks. She felt his lips brush her earlobe and his hot breath whispered "Don't think I don't know that those Peacekeepers walking by will assume the same thing."

Delly stopped and let go of Gale. He too drew back his arms and put them at his sides reverently. Seeing the betrayed look on Delly's face, Gale's words started tumbling out like cascading rocks onto the slag heap. "I'm so sorry I did that. You must think I'm the biggest ass in Panem. I would _never_ to that to you. I respect you. You're different."

_Stupid, stupid, Delly, _she screamed at herself. _It was an act! It was all show! And you… you thought it was… No. Gale Hawthorne is trouble. Find out about the revolution and _that's it.

Gale was watching Delly's frustrated face contort as she yelled in her thought, and he took that as confusion. "This is our alibi, Delly. The friendly Peacekeepers are gone. No more Darius to cover for us. No more Cray to not care. Only Thread as his soulless minions. And they would take us in at the slightest suspicion. A happy couple was the safest cover I could think of so that we wouldn't raise any alarms. And they bought it."

"…right." Delly voice was surprisingly steady as she forced all the confused, jumbling thoughts ricocheting in her brain to the side to focus on Gale's words. The slag heap. The touching. It was all part of the cover. Gale was even more cunning than she previously thought. Lightly, Gale's finger lifted Delly's head upward and he leaned in for a soft kiss. Gale's lips were rough at first, but softened as the kiss went on. They tasted like coal dust and sweat, delicately reflecting the Seam boy they belonged to. More radios buzzed in the distance. Just as their lips parted Delly opened her eyes, and, gazing into Gale's gray ones, whispered heavily, "So about that rebellion?"

0O0O0O0

"Come along, come along. Watch yer step." Jerome and his group of a little less than twenty kids had been the first to take the descending elevator ride down. After the stomach-churning drop, the group had followed the guide (Jonathan his name was) down the main shaft. On the ceiling, a few yards apart, were flickering red light bulbs, presumable the ones that would guide you out in an emergency.

The guides rough and Jonathan's garbled voice grumbled, "If yew look down where yer standing, yew'll see the track fer the cars ter go on. The track goes out deep inter the mine and when the coal is cerllected it's put onter the cars, brought back up here and led out 'at tunnel, " Every head turned to the right where he pointed, and sure even there was a tunnel sloping up at about a 45° angle. "…and on a long jerney up where it'll surface right next ter the train ter take 'em ter the Capiterl. Now follow me this way…"

Jerome fell in step with Nan, who was walking next to Sophia Douglass. "What's Tartarus?" he blurted. Sophia gave Nan the _stupid-boy-don't-listen-to-him_ look, but Nan shot a glance back at her. As a result, Sophia scowled at Jerome and slinked away.

Nannerl frowned at Jerome, but not _at _Jerome. She was thinking, trying to figure out the best way to explain the foreign word. "Have you ever been to the school library?"

Jerome felt a bit offended. "Well, yeah, of course. Hasn't every-"

"No, no. I mean have you ever been to the school library for something other than school projects?" Nan's voice was as light as a bird, instantly calming any bit of Jerome that was insulted. He shook his head. Nan continued, "A year or so ago I found this book in the history section that didn't seem to fit in. I asked the librarian about it and she simply put it in her office, locking the door without a word. It was all very strange, but I didn't say anything about it. Finally about a week later, my curiosity got the better of me and I… I snuck into the librarian's office and stole the book. I took it home and I've read it maybe a million times by now and I love it. The stories, they're lessons and explanations like nothing I've read before. And it's old. Like really old. Some of the pages are yellow and musty. Some of the pages have water damage and smell like sea water. Tartarus is a place from the book where people who have done horrible wrongs in their life go when they die. It's full of fire and darkness. Reminds me of this place. The place that took my dad from me."

"Your dad was a miner?"

Nan was quiet for a moment. "I don't look it, but my dad was from the Seam. He died in the explosion a few years back."

"I'm sorry." Jerome had a sudden urge to hold her hand.

"Don't be. It's not like you were the one that created the explosion."

Jerome tilted his head." Created? I thought it was-"

"-a freak accident I know. That's what they told us, right? I don't buy it. I used to go with my dad every day in the morning to walk him to the mine and then wait for him to come out every night. I overheard plenty about something the miners were planning. Apparently they were getting too close for Snow's comfort, so he terminated them. Bastard."

Nan reminded Jerome of Delly. A really soft, sweet girl at first, but with a hidden flame on the inside. "Which one is your favorite?" he asked.

She looked up at him, her blue-gray eyes reflecting the red light from above. Only then did Jerome remember they were on a field trip. "My favorite what?"

"Story. From the book."

Nan thought for a moment, then opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Jonathan the guide. "In dis mine we yews the teckneek of minin' called 'blast minin'." We take this hear drill, make a hole in the wall, then chews a man wit a good leg to put the dynamite in the hole and set off the stick. Once the ecsploshin is done, the rock is loosened and we can get to the coal better." He gestured the wall behind him, where there were holes made by a drill. He placed a stick of dynamite in one of them and the group took a bumbling step back, some of the girls shrieking. "Hey, hey no need ter get yer trousers in a twist, I wasn't gonna set it off." The crowd settled again.

In the lull, someone called out, "Why do you need someone with a good leg to set off the explosion?"

Jonathan's gaze dug into the boy who asked, and very gravely, answered, "So they can run."


	5. Phoebus

Following Jonathan, the group took a number of downward-sloping twists and turns, going deeper and deeper into the maze of a mine. Jerome thought that each year they went on the field trip they saw a little more of the mine; he didn't remember this section from the year before. He turned back to Nan, who was concluding her delivery of _Theseus and the Minotaur_, a story where a terrible king forced fourteen Athenians to be fed to the Minotaur. The Minotaur, a mix between a bull and a man, was held in the Labyrinth, a deadly maze. One year, Theseus was one of the Athenians offered and, instead of dying, he killed the Minotaur and escaped the Labyrinth using thread to guide himself out.

"He sailed home with Ariadne, the girl who gave him the string, but Theseus forgot to change the ship's sails from black to white to show his father he succeeded. His father saw the black sails, assumed Theseus was dead, and killed himself in his grief." Nan finished. Then she raised her eyebrow. "Do you know _why _that one's my favorite?"

Jerome let the story—myth, as Nan called it—sink in. He narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose. Nan giggled lightly beside him, presumable at his face. Then he turned to her. "It reminds you of us. Of Panem."

Nan nods, eyes twinkling under the red light bulbs. "The Labyrinth is just like another Games. Tributes go in. Tributes don't come out. But Theseus didn't play like he was supposed to. When he got out of the Labyrinth, he won their Games when there wasn't supposed to be a victor. Just like Katniss. When she shot that arrow, she found her way out of the Labyrinth. You see?" Nan paused for air, but instead of continuing with the same vigor, she hung her head and croaked, "She got out when no one else could."

Jerome's mind swirled with blood-splattered memories. A past Games held in a mountainous arena full of rocky ridges. Two tributes using glow-in-the-dark rocks to find their way back to camp in the night. The most unexpected twist claiming all but three of the remaining tributes. "Phoebus," he whispered.

Nan nodded with tears in her eyes.

"Phoebus was one of those that couldn't escape the Labyrinth. He is one of the reasons you despise the Games so much." She nodded again.

A tribute a couple years back from District 12, Phoebus had been a fun-loving red-head in the same year as Jerome. Jerome remembered seeing Nan by Phoebus' side whenever he saw the beanstalk of a boy. He had stood out from the rest of the class, not worrying about cliques, and as a result became one of the most popular kids in school. It was only in his interview that people found out about his story.

"_So Phoebus, got anything you want to say to any family back at home?"_

"_Oh, I wish, Caesar_. _But you see, I don't have any family left. My mother died of sickness when I was young and my father shortly after of a broken heart." The crowd responded with a resounding 'aww'._

_Caesar hung his head, his forest green hair flopping forward. Looking back up at Phoebus, he whispered, "I think I speak for everyone when I say our hearts go out to you."_

_Phoebus nodded. "Thank you. All of you. Since the moment I stepped off that train I've been treated only with kindness. My heart goes out to you. But more importantly, my heart goes out to my friends back home in 12. I love you guys. Be free, all men."_

He had won over more sponsors alone that year than the District 12 tributes had the past five years before combined. Phoebus had been one of the last eight tributes, at that point alone in the mountains with the Careers on his back. But he was quick, escaping just minutes before they found his camp every time. Eventually the audience grew tired of his charade and the Gamemakers decided to throw in another factor. On the dawn of the 22nd day of the Games, a massive rockfall took out Phoebus and four others, leaving the three left to vie for the crown.

Nan was silent for a while, and Jerome heard only hushed conversations of other students, no one wanting to speak over the echoing hollowness of the mine walls.

Nan's voice rasped, "He didn't know it was coming until it was too late. The rocks gained and gained on him, nipping at his heels, and he kept running and running when we all knew running was futile. The rocks started falling on him and at first it was just the small ones, tiny pebbles the size of your toes. I thought for a split second that he would he okay. That everything would be fine. But then one got him in the back of the knee and he crashed to the ground, scraping his cheek across the gravelly earth. He moved to get up to slow for my taste. 'Get up! GET UP GET UP!' I screamed at him but of course he couldn't hear me. And then another, bigger rock landed on the small of his back. _Crack_. I think that it broke his spine, because after that he stopped trying to get up. He just crawled an inch or so until this monster of a boulder came over of nowhere and down on his head and I couldn't even warn him through the screen and I watched as his blood seeped out from under it. And the cannon sounded."

Nan squeezed her eyes tightly shut as if trying to shut out the memory. Jerome touched her arm and she snapped her head up to look him in the eye. "You know at his final interview he said goodbye to me. Me specifically. He was my best friend."

And when Jerome thought about it Nan was right. Phoebus hadn't said 'be free, all men.' He said, 'be free, Allman.' That's Nan. Jerome looked over at her and saw how broken she was over Phoebus' death. Wanting to comfort her he said gently, "He was a smart guy, you know. He used his sob story to gain sympathy from sponsors, who just flocked to him. His likability and that clever act ultimately helped him survive longer."

Nan's eyes burned holes through Jerome. "That was no act. We took him in, my mom and I did, when I was ten. By then, he'd been living on his own for over three years. But when he finally told me about his situation I knew what I had to do, that he didn't deserve to be alone all the time."

Jerome paused for a moment before asking, "Were you guys an… item?"

"Oh no. Never. He was like a brother to me." Nan gave a small smile, but it quickly faded after a second. "And now he's dead. Because of them."


	6. The First Wave

"So you're telling me that District 8 has had a full-scale uprising?" Delly asked. Gale nodded his head. "According to Katniss Everdeen?" Nod. "Because two random women in the woods told her?" Pause. Nod.

"I know it sounds crazy but-"

"And then Thom said to Leevy that you said you believe some other districts have rebelled, too? And that the tributes from the Quarter Quell were in on it?"

Gale face looked flustered. "Maybe. I said maybe. But it's a good theory. I mean, did you watch the interviews? They got cut off because-"

"Because of Peeta Mellark." Delly finished coolly.

Gale's eyes widened with passion and he grinned. "But if you think about it, it started way before that. From District 1, from the beginning it was going nowhere but downhill. And with each victor that went up the crowd grew more and more restless. And so did the districts."

"So we join them." Delly says. "Have an uprising of our own."

Gale sucked in a breath. "That's the hard part. With Thread here and the Hob gone there's no good way to meet people to organize a rebellion."

"We met." Delly countered.

"That's because there's only two of us, Dell. And we have a sound cover." Delly liked Gale calling her Dell. It was different than how Jerome said it. Softer. Sexier. Then Gale tensed. "Come here. Give me a kiss," he said. She would have smiled, laughed, something, if it weren't for the anxious way he spoke. But Delly didn't question it. Instead, she leaned in and brushed her lips against Gale's, who turned her gesture into a long, slow kiss. The tell-tale radios of Peacekeepers that filled the background slowly receded. Delly broke off and frowned at herself. Even though nothing was wrong with kissing him, she felt like she was betraying someone. _Am I taking advantage of Gale? _She wondered. _Or simply playing along?_

Delly shook off her train of thought. She asked, "How about when Katniss and Peeta come home? Everyone'll be in the square to greet them. We can start there. Make an impression on the crowd."

"It's risky." Gale said skeptically. "Between the stunt Katniss pulled and the tension in the other districts, suits will be everywhere. But it-" He was interrupted by a distant boom, closely followed by another one. Then another. Louder.

"What was that?" Delly wondered aloud. They both turned toward the noise and saw three smoky clouds.

"Bombs." Gale whispered in horror. "We have to move. Now. The fence is that way." He pointed. "It's weak in a few spots where Thread missed. That was just the beginning. The second wave of bombs will be coming soon. And coming closer."

"No!" Delly protested. "You want to leave? My brother is in the mines! We have to go back!" She tried to turn and run toward Jerome but Gale grabbed her arm with an iron grip.

"Actually, Dell, I told you that so that you can find your way out when you need to. Which I suggest you do now, but I would be a hypocrite if I told you not to go back and get loved ones. That's, after all, what I'm doing." Then he looked into her eyes, and Delly wondered how she ever thought his gray eyes were cold or scary at all. He was the gentlest person she'd ever met. "Please get out of Twelve before it's too late. I would hate if anything- anything happened to you."

For a second, Delly wondered if it was part of the act, but when she looked around, there were no suits in sight. Then she looked up at Gale and, before she could stop herself, kissed him. He kissed back, this time different from before. It was more… emotional. Too soon, he pulled away and gripped her arms at her sides. "Be safe."

Then he was gone.

0O0O0O0

Up ahead, the group was stopped and gathered around Jonathan. Jerome and Nan joined them to see what everyone was looking at. Jonathan, standing in front of a finished-looking, flat wall, spoke. "And here we've come ter the final stop on are tour. Here we have a wall wit the names of all the miners who died in the big ecsploshin a few years back. May their souls rest in peace."

Jerome glanced over at Nan, who was silently crying. Some kids simply glazed over the names, but you could tell when someone was searching for a specific miner. The ones who knew them. Loved them. Nan slowly made her way to the wall as if in a trance and found a name on the left end of the wall. She fingered the engraving and Jerome saw her shoulders bounce up and down as if she was sobbing. He took a step forward, wanting to go over to Nan and hold her until her eyes were dry. Suddenly, Sophia Douglass stepped in Jerome's way. "Leave her be. She doesn't want to talk about it. Not with you," she growled.

Jerome was caught off guard. He took a step back and studied Sophia, who looked a bit caught off guard herself. Her voice calmed to a nicer tone and continued, "Nan doesn't like to talk about her dad to anyone. It's not personal." Jerome said nothing. Sophia fidgeted beside him. "You know, I saw you two talking before. She seemed…happy, which is rare for her since…since Phoebus. Thank you." She glanced up at him once more as if she wanted to say something else, but then turned and walked away.

Jerome found Aero off to the side by Aven, whispering back and forth in hushed tones. Aven was a merchant-seam hybrid, the only one in the class. _No,_ Jerome thought to himself. _Nan is a mix too_. Aven had the grittiness to fit in with Seam kids but had the poise to fit in with merchant kids too. However, she chose to keep out of both cliques and keep to herself. She's very quiet, but ridiculously pretty, and because of that she's been attracting boys like flies to a light since primary school, Aero included. "Hey man," Aero greeted. Jerome's face must have looked funny, because Aero's eyebrows creased. "What's wrong?"

Jerome shook his head. "Nothing." He sat down next to Aero on the curved rock protruding from the wall. "What were you guys whispered about when I came over?"

Surprisingly, it was Aven who answered, "We were talking to Jonathan, the guide, before. Apparently this is not an official stop on the tour. We didn't come here last year."

Puzzled, Jerome asked, "Why not? It's the only place that actually has any meaning to any of these kids."

"We don't know," Aero sighed.

"Were they trying to _hide_ the memorial?" Aven speculated.

Aero stared at her. Jerome noticed the way she looked back at him, not like the two randomly struck up their first conversation today. Like friends. Aero argued, "From who? We all know what happened with the explosion."

Jerome remembered something Nan said before. "No. They were trying to cover up the explosion. Everyone knows what happened, but without something like this, people will forget eventually. Anyway….Nan doesn't think it was an accident."

"Nan?" Aero repeated. "Who's Nan?"

"Nannerl Allman. The girl always following Phoebus around. I was talking to her-"

"Phoebus?" he demanded. Aero actually had been one of the few people who wasn't a fan of Phoebus.

Jerome grew angry at Aero's tone toward Nan. "She's a really cool girl, you know. Hybrid like you, Aven."

Aven gasped slightly, then composed herself again so quickly so that if you blinked, you would have missed her reaction altogether.

Jonathan's voice turned all heads towards him, half in tears from grief. "Aright, time fer us to move on twards the end ov are tour. The ecsit is-" Jonathan was cut off by a low rumble from above. All eyes looked up at the grains of dust falling from a few of the cracks in the ceiling.

Murmurs arose, but quickly ceased when another rumble began. Jerome looked over at Nan across the room, who mouthed one word: "Run."

This time the ceiling didn't hold quite as well. One large chunk of rock came loose and dropped, pinning Jonathan's legs down with a petrifying crack. And the chaos began.


	7. Tunnel Run

Screams of panic erupted from terrified students and resonated through Jerome's ears. The yellow lights above flickered, and when more rocks fell, smaller this time, darkness followed. A light materialized suddenly, and then grew, illuminating the room in a lantern. Jonathan blew out the match and extended the lantern out. Aero kneeled down and took it from him.

"Well come one then!" Someone urged. "Let's get out of here!"

A few kids took off down one of the corridors, while the rest stayed in a circle around Jonathan, unsure of what to do. The rumbles had lessened for the time being, so the rock fall wasn't as predominant. Jerome kneeled next to Aero, examining the guide. Jonathan looked older than ever, practically ancient in the state he was in. His wrinkles were well-defined in the light of the lantern, coated with sweat and dust. There was no use moving the boulder crushing his legs, and when Aero tried to, Jonathan howled in pain.

Jerome clasped Jonathan's arthritic hand, noticing a layer of coal dust underneath the fingernails. "Boy." Jonathan rasped. Kyra Fairmount was crying on the other side of Jonathan, her whimpers drowning out what Jonathan was whispering, but it was quickly cut-off by Aero's harsh "shh".

"Leave me, boy. Get out while you can."

In Jerome's boggled mind, he sensed something was missing. Those kids who ran off choose a pathway by chance; there was no way to know where to go unless you knew the mine like the back of your hand. Miners did. Jonathan did. But for everyone else, they would rely on the red emergency light bulbs to lead them to the exit, just liked Jonathan said. And those lights were nowhere to be found.

"Jonathan." Jerome gently slapped the guide's cheek. "You gotta stay with me. The red bulbs. They're gone. How do we get out?"

Jonathan's shaking hand pointed down one of the corridors just as another rumble began. "Let's go." As soon as Jerome said it, all of his jumpy classmates moved toward the shown path. Aero and Aven were the last to go, and when Aero turned back to look at Jerome, Jerome nodded them on. The light dimmed as they moved further and further away. Jerome lit another match and observed Jonathan, whose face matched his voice.

"Whut are you still doin here, boy?" Jonathan asked.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry that I can't save you." Jerome apologized.

Jonathan coughed. "Well, if you stay here much longer, yer not gonna be able ter save yerself. Now get!"

Jerome blew out the match and lit another. He stood up to leave, when Jonathan coughed again. "How fitting it is that I died here. In the room where my fellow miners are honored. Now we can be reunited. And I can say… I'm sorry I survived… when they didn't. Until now..." Cursing, Jerome dropped the match, clenching his flame-licked fingers into a fist. As the match ran out of fuel and went out, the room went pitch-black again. A chill ran through Jerome, telling him to _run._

0O0O0O0

Delly sprinted full-out toward Footprint Path. The bombs grew thicker, exploding all around her. She turned to her right and saw the mayor's house on fire. Snapping her head to the other side she watched as bombs pummeled the shops, reducing them to blackened ash. Her eyes instinctively found where her house should have been. Instead, she found more flames lapping at the heavens, and spreading. Delly wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but she could only hope her parents got out and keep running for Jerome.

A bomb went off to the left of Delly, igniting a shed and slamming her into the ground. She stood up on the blurry, tilting ground, ignored the sharp pain in her shoulder, and kept running.

She reached the main entrance to the mine and flung open the iron door. Grasping for the elevator door, Delly realized the elevator must be at the bottom. She pressed the button to send it up, but it simply groaned at her and shuttered. No elevator came up.

"Jerome?" Delly called into the hole. "Are you in there? JEROME!" Her shouts echoed through the elevator shaft, but no one answer followed. "Jerome!"

"Hey! What are you doing here? Come on, we need to move. Now!" A Seam man yelled at Delly. He gripped her arm and began to pull her away from the mine, away from Jerome.

Panicking, Delly twisted out of the man's grip and swung her out toward him, missing completely. When he went to grab her again, she dodged his arms and knocked into the iron door. "Jerome! Are you in there?"

The Seam man clutched Delly's waist and snarled through grit teeth, "I _will not_ have _your _blood on _my hands_." He pulled on her middle again, but she held onto the iron door, her fingers turning purple. "Come with me—so I don't have to _live_ with the fact that _you_ are _dead_ and _I _didn't _save _you." With one mighty heave, Delly's fingers slipped out and the Seam man simply had to scoop her up and start running. "JEROME!"

0O0O0O0

Jerome jogged along the corridor, feeling the wall as he went until he met up with the red bulbs, which from there led him toward his classmates. At one point he tripped over something, and when he looked down he saw the body of Rupert Accardi, one of the kids who ran ahead without Aero's group, half-under a pile of rocks. "Sorry, bro." Another rumble stimulated Jerome to keep moving.

He turned a corner and saw half the group jogging at a slow pace.

"This way guys! Come on!" An enthusiastic voice echoed.

Jerome fell in step with Aven, who was holding the lantern while Aero and a few others carried Kyra Fairmount. "What happened?"

"Rocks happened." Aven said bluntly. "And Kyra here decided she was done walking. Not to say it wasn't justified. If I move the lantern closer you might be able to see bone-"

"Are we close?" Jerome wasn't interested in seeing any bone. Injuries needing more than a simple bandage always nauseated him.

Aven shrugged. "Hard to say. I've come to accept that I may die within the next five minutes, though." She looked him up and down. "You probably should too." She moved the lantern toward Kyra, whose eyes were closed and breathing slowing…slowing…until it was imperceptible. "I know she has. Someone check her pulse."

Aero obeyed. "Dead. Alright guys, put her down here."

They started to, when one guy complained. "You can't just leave her here."

Aero looked at him and waved his hand toward Kyra. "You want to carry her. Be my guest." The boy said nothing. Without any prodding, the group picked up the pace until they came to the elevator, where the other half waited.

Bryce Evans saw Aero and nodded. "Good, you guys made it. I was getting worried. Now we can—where's Kyra?"

"She didn't make it." Aero stated.

Bryce's face paled and he turned to the elevator. "We need to get out of here. If only this _thing_ would _open_." He shook the iron door to the elevator with no results.

Jerome noticed the rusty chains and the dust around the edges of the hinges and saw a disaster waiting to happen. Another rumble began. "Bryce, wait." Jerome said in a low, urgent voice. But Bryce either didn't hear him or ignored his warning, because he kept shaking the door with more fury than ever.

"GET—US—OUT OF HERE! NOW! NOW! AHHHH!" Bryce screamed.

"Bryce, STOP!"

"AHH!" And with the last shake, the chains snapped and the entire elevator crashed down, colliding with the door and falling into a metallic heap. When the dust cleared, Jerome ran over and searched for Bryce, who would have gotten caught somewhere underneath the door.

"Bryce! Aven, the lantern!" Jerome called.

Aven hopped onto the treacherous metal pile and knelt next to Jerome. "He's gone, Jerome. Nothing we can do."

Frustrated, Jerome stood up and pulled on his hair. Unsatisfied with hurting himself, he turned around and punched the wall before he remembered its unsteadiness.

"NO!" Aven screeched, dropping the lantern as she lunged forward. Everyone grew dead silent, waiting for the ominous rumble and shake to seal their fate. After a moment, they realized the only sound they would be listening to was Aven's outburst echoing off the walls. Jerome exhaled the breath he'd been holding and leaned his head on the wall in relief. Closing his eyes, he didn't notice the fist-size rock that dislodged from a crevice and thumped his on the top of his skull.

_Jerome was alone. Surrounding him were bodies of everyone he loved. He tried to look at individual faces, but at the last moment, their features disappeared. And he wept. He sat down with his knees to his chest and wept for the dead, wept for his family, wept for himself. Because he was the only survivor. He stood up and gazed at the crumbled Justice Building. Not District Twelve. Thirteen. A sudden wash of relief came over Jerome. Why did he feel so safe all of a sudden? He began to calmly walk toward the Justice Building, with no bodies. They were gone. Jerome smiled, and then the ground opened up and he got swallowed by the earth._

"Jerome!"

Jerome sat up, shaking. "Where'd I go?" he asked. "I fell. Where'd I go? What's in the hole?"

Nan was hovering over Jerome with a draught expression. "You got hit by a rock and blacked out for a few seconds. We're in the mine."

Just when Jerome opened his mouth to tell her that's not what he was asking about, Nan was replaced by Aero, who held out his hand to help him up. "That rock really got you good, didn't it? You, uh, you got some blood in your hair." Aero pulled him up, but immediately Jerome swayed to the side and his vision was filled with black spots. "Whoa." Aero steadied him. "Easy there. Now." He said, turning to the rest of the group. "How the hell do we escape?"

Jerome studied Nan, who seemed to be in deep thought. Suddenly, her lips started moving slightly, but no words came out. Jerome stood straight, swatting off Aero, who tried to stabilize him again. "What is it, Nan?" Jerome asked.

Nan nodded her head. "Remember what Jonathan said about where the coal went after it was mined?" Everyone stared at her blankly.

A girl toward the back of the group smiled at Nan, "Oh, sweetheart, we don't pay attention on these field trips."

"Shut up, Morra," the boy next to her snapped. "Go on," he said to Nan.

"Jonathan said that once the coal was mined, it was put on a cart on a track to a tunnel..."

"…and taken to the surface." Jerome finished. "Nan you're a genius!" He rushed over, ignoring the severe pounding in his head, to Nan, whose face was filled with pure delight. He put his hands on Nan's shoulders.

She placed her hands on top of his. "Thank you," Nan breathed. She gave him a lopsided smile, feeling her cheeks go warm. Standing on her toes, she-

"Do you remember where he said the tunnel was?" Jerome questioned.

Nan stepped back, clearing her mind. To think. "This way," she said after a second, pointing back down into the mine.

"Well, let's get going." Aero announced, stepping forward. Rumble. "This place is going down, and I don't plan on being here when that happens."

"Follow me." Nan turned and began running, with the rest of the group on her tail.


End file.
